Please join us in celebrating the publication of the latest book from Terra Nostra Press, Community Matters. This webinar will bring together CLT practitioners from Boston, Brussels, London, Houston, and San Juan whose perspectives on community organizing and resident engagement are featured in the book. These practitioners will be reflecting on questions posed the book’s editor, John Emmeus Davis. The webinar’s attendees will be invited to ask questions of their own in a short Q&A session moderated by Theresa Williamson, who authored the book’s concluding chapter.

This webinar will be offered with simultaneous translation in English and Spanish.

The following community organizers (and the people who interviewed them for the book) will be featured as part of this webinar:

• Caño Martín Peña CLT: Mariolga Juliá Pacheco and interviewer Line Algoed,
• CLT Brussels:  Geert De Pauw and interviewer Dave Smith,
• Dudley Neighbors Inc:  Tony Hernandez, Jason Webb, and interviewer María Hernández Torrales,
• Houston CLT:  Ashley Allen and interviewer John Davis,
• London CLT:  Razia Khanom, Dave Smith and interviewer Greg Rosenberg.

Book Description

Community Matters: Conversations with Reflective Practitioners about the Value and Variety of Resident Engagement in Community Land Trusts is the first in our interview series of publications, featuring leading CLT practitioners from around the globe.

Community land trusts (CLTs) are distinguished from many other nonprofit housing developers by the degree to which residents of the places served by a CLT are woven into the culture, structure, and operation of the organization itself. This participatory element — the “C” in CLT — is just as important to what a CLT is and does as its distinctive approach to the ownership of land and the stewardship of housing.

The practitioners featured in the present volume epitomize the persistence of this commitment to community — and its complexity. Working with CLTs in Boston, Brussels, Houston, London, and San Juan, they have championed a variety of strategies for giving residents an active voice in planning and development. They have also changed strategies when needed. The stories of these experienced practitioners explore the whys and ways of keeping “community” alive in organizations like theirs. They offer a virtual master class in resilient resident engagement.